Why the hell are they still making 16nm TLC NAND Flash based SSDs? Haven't we learned that as NAND Flash shrinks past 19nm it becomes too unreliable which results in reduced performance over time due to voltage drive?
Depending on how you measure, such drives still provide the best cost/benefit tradeoff. If you're not doing something unusual, then there's only so much I/O you're going to do. If you can meet those needs in 1ms or 10ms - well, the difference is not likely to be perceptible, so you're better off picking whatever is cheapest.
Of course, if you needs have workloads that are (say) 100 times longer, and the choice is between 100ms latency and 1s, then perhaps it's worth talking about! But at light I/O load, a samsung 960 pro may well not feel any faster than this drive, even though it's much more expensive (and quantifiably faster).
Said it before and I'll say it again because it still stands true.
TLC drives aren't any cheaper than MLC drives. There is no reason to get something inferior when something superior is the same price.
Sandisk SSD Plus is MLC and stupid cheap. Various drives based on the Sandforce SF2281, an incredibly mature controller at this point can still be found on par or CHEAPER than TLC drives. And even though its a 4 year old controller, it's still going to be faster in most applications than any planar TLC drive that relies on SLC caching.
And of course, there are used or refurbished drives. I'd take many of these over a new TLC drive. Crucial M550's are dirt cheap on eBay and they are faster and more reliable than any TLC drive.
What the fuck is wrong with them. They rebadged the Z410 as an SSD Plus at the beginning of the year, completely changing the drive?
Drives can't just silently switch to TLC. Most drives are recognized by their controllers and performance, both of which change when transitioning NAND architecture.
Well fuck Sandisk they just pulled a scam out of OCZ old dusty, bankrupt playbook.
People just get an MLC drive on eBay then until this sub 20nm Planar TLC thing actually proves itself.
Well they certainly didn't go out of their way to make it obvious the changes under the hood are pretty substantial, changing the sub model by 1 digit.
"Plextor has introduced its new family of entry-level SSDs, which could become the most affordable drives in the company’s lineup in the coming months"
With some effort that can be measured and calibrated. I don't know how good the SM2258 and the firmware of this drive are in this regard, but to completely write off TLC below 19 nm is far too short sigthed.
I wonder if Anandtech will cover news of Toshiba's efforts to make a 100 TB QLC NAND drive? I really wouldn't mind replacing a storage HDD with a QLC drive. Writing on that kind of drive doesn't happen very often, and the speeds would still be so much faster than a spinning disk.
It is, IN PRINCIPLE, possible to cope with this by tracking that drift and compensating. Now, do I believe that entry-level companies selling into a crowded market will do the engineering to get this right? Hmmm...
This is a budget drive aimed at low work loads. Your average PC/laptop user who just browses the web and does some word processing won't be writing too much to the drive and these people are price sensitive, so a budget SSD makes sense.
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trparky - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
Why the hell are they still making 16nm TLC NAND Flash based SSDs? Haven't we learned that as NAND Flash shrinks past 19nm it becomes too unreliable which results in reduced performance over time due to voltage drive?trparky - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
voltage drift*hojnikb - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
because they are cheap.BrokenCrayons - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
And they sell VERY well to consumers.emn13 - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
Depending on how you measure, such drives still provide the best cost/benefit tradeoff. If you're not doing something unusual, then there's only so much I/O you're going to do. If you can meet those needs in 1ms or 10ms - well, the difference is not likely to be perceptible, so you're better off picking whatever is cheapest.Of course, if you needs have workloads that are (say) 100 times longer, and the choice is between 100ms latency and 1s, then perhaps it's worth talking about! But at light I/O load, a samsung 960 pro may well not feel any faster than this drive, even though it's much more expensive (and quantifiably faster).
Samus - Saturday, October 8, 2016 - link
Said it before and I'll say it again because it still stands true.TLC drives aren't any cheaper than MLC drives. There is no reason to get something inferior when something superior is the same price.
Sandisk SSD Plus is MLC and stupid cheap. Various drives based on the Sandforce SF2281, an incredibly mature controller at this point can still be found on par or CHEAPER than TLC drives. And even though its a 4 year old controller, it's still going to be faster in most applications than any planar TLC drive that relies on SLC caching.
And of course, there are used or refurbished drives. I'd take many of these over a new TLC drive. Crucial M550's are dirt cheap on eBay and they are faster and more reliable than any TLC drive.
hojnikb - Saturday, October 8, 2016 - link
SSD plus is TLC for quite some time now. And other drives also silently switched to TLC.Samus - Sunday, October 9, 2016 - link
What the fuck is wrong with them. They rebadged the Z410 as an SSD Plus at the beginning of the year, completely changing the drive?Drives can't just silently switch to TLC. Most drives are recognized by their controllers and performance, both of which change when transitioning NAND architecture.
Well fuck Sandisk they just pulled a scam out of OCZ old dusty, bankrupt playbook.
People just get an MLC drive on eBay then until this sub 20nm Planar TLC thing actually proves itself.
hojnikb - Monday, October 10, 2016 - link
Technically, it's not the same drive, because they changed the model number. SSD plus with tlc now ends with -G26, instead of G25 for the mlc model.Samus - Monday, November 13, 2017 - link
Well they certainly didn't go out of their way to make it obvious the changes under the hood are pretty substantial, changing the sub model by 1 digit.dsraa - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
Oh so this is supposed to be budget level SSD? because those numbers.....they don't look too high performance at all....weilin - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
"Plextor has introduced its new family of entry-level SSDs, which could become the most affordable drives in the company’s lineup in the coming months"The_Assimilator - Saturday, October 8, 2016 - link
Why would you expect class-leading performance from a budget-priced drive?MrSpadge - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
With some effort that can be measured and calibrated. I don't know how good the SM2258 and the firmware of this drive are in this regard, but to completely write off TLC below 19 nm is far too short sigthed.sonicmerlin - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
I wonder if Anandtech will cover news of Toshiba's efforts to make a 100 TB QLC NAND drive? I really wouldn't mind replacing a storage HDD with a QLC drive. Writing on that kind of drive doesn't happen very often, and the speeds would still be so much faster than a spinning disk.name99 - Friday, October 7, 2016 - link
It is, IN PRINCIPLE, possible to cope with this by tracking that drift and compensating.Now, do I believe that entry-level companies selling into a crowded market will do the engineering to get this right? Hmmm...
hojnikb - Monday, October 10, 2016 - link
You can't track drift, if the drive is powered down though.Shadow7037932 - Saturday, October 8, 2016 - link
This is a budget drive aimed at low work loads. Your average PC/laptop user who just browses the web and does some word processing won't be writing too much to the drive and these people are price sensitive, so a budget SSD makes sense.